To make and receive phone calls between members of multiple telecommunications services, the calling service opens a channel with the receiving telecommunications service. The channel enables one or more calls between users of each telecommunications service. For accepting the channel and supporting the operation thereof, the calling telecommunications service pays the receiving telecommunications service.
The bills for operating the service are settled on a monthly basis. This is a time consuming process. Additionally, a monthly billing cycle creates substantial barriers to entry to the telecommunications industry because newcomers are often requested to front substantial sums of money as a “retainer” for the month.